The Bikes of Wrath

source: The Bikes of Wrath

I have to admit, I thought this was going to be a movie about an endurance bike ride with a Grapes of Wrath twist. It was so much more than that. Its a movie about 5 Australians who were going for a bike ride to California and discover that kindness, compassion and understanding is alive and well in America if you just look past the surface, slow down and take the time to listen to others.

Australians read Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and became inspired to bicycle from the Oklahoma to California just like the people in the book. Even though these were well to do Australians they took very little cash in order to simulate the characters in the book. The Americans along the roads were very generous. People with the least to give give the most was said repeatedly. They learned very quickly that they needed to sell their carts and musical instruments. One man hurt his arm but got it fixed. The states they traveled were Okahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and finally Bakersfield, California. They were exhausted. The documentary called Bikes of Wrath works well, because the men are likeable and the people along their route responded well to them. They were given loads of cash which is weird since at the beginning of the documentary in Sydney their house was upper class. Americans they found were amazingly similar to the Dust Bowl Oakies. In fact at the end a crying relative read a real letter from her mother who had been one years old and came to California during the Dust Bowl. I love Grapes of Wrath, and this bicycle documentary is a wonderful recreation of those Dust Bowl days.